Rarely do games hyped-up to the extent of Friday’s match-up between Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum live up to the billing. But this one did with S.F. winning a close 4-3 ballgame.

I got the feeling most fans were siding with Halladay given his no-hit performance against Cincinnati. But the nine days off in-between starts seemed to zap Doc of his dominate stuff from a week earlier.

Lincecum didn’t steal the show either, but found ways to get big outs when he needed them.

Most surprising is that both hurlers allowed home runs to the No. 8 hitters in the lineups. Another beauty of postseason baseball!

Meanwhile, Halladay’s hitless streak of 11 innings is second longest in postseason history to Don Larsen, who tossed 2.3 hitless innings against Milwaukee in the 1957 World Series following his perfect game for New York in the 1956 Series.

I’d put Tuesday’s duel between Andy Pettitte and Cliff Lee on the same stage as Halladay vs. Lincecum.

Pettitte is going after his 20th career postseason win and Lee is quickly shaping up as one of the most dominate starters in postseason history.

I venture to say that whoever wins Game 3 will win the series. For my money, I like Lee.